For more than two decades, I have been an entertainment correspondent for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, DGA Quarterly and London’s Tatler to name a few. I have also been a screenwriter, script/story analyst, marketing strategist and writer for studios and independent film companies on campaigns including social action and advocacy to Academy Award nominees. Trained as an investigative journalist, I covered everything from politics to crime, from civil rights to medicine and foreign trade as a news and business writer. Prestigious journalism awards and covering the Cannes Film Festival were great but a personal high point? Covering China’s return to the Olympic games.

The Hunger for Another Game - Divergent Plays to A Fevered Pitch

As Divergent opens in 3,900 theaters today can the latest tale of young female empowerment overcoming a bleak dystopic future finally conquer the blight that has stripped the majority of Young Adult (YA) film adaptations becoming hit franchises?

Can Summit Entertainment’s $85 million sci-fi adventure directed by Neil Burger starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James bank on author Veronica Roth’s substantial fan base with 17 million copies of “Divergent” sold worldwide?

Can an estimated $25 million spent to fan that interest to a fever pitch with tie-ins from licensing partners ranging from MattelMattel (a “Tris” (Shailene) Barbie and a “Four” (Theo) Ken) to Sephora’s Divergent cosmetic line to Hot Topics hot product line prove a decisive influence in the anticipated $60 million opening weekend results box office analysts project?

That may not be the breathtaking results compared to two key predecessors – Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games opening of $152.5 million – a landmark franchise debut in 2012 for the first in author Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy; or Summit’s Twilight, the first in Stephenie Meyer’s runaway hit teen vampire romance saga, bowing to $69.6 million in 2008 – a launch that transformed Hollywood industry “think” and gave girl power new meaning when it came to audience domination. Aside from these two sterling franchise launches and the unstoppable success of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” sensation, most YA efforts have failed to launch or finished the race.

Based on other authors’ phenomenally successful works – Consider such misses as: Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game,” Kami Garcia’s and Margaret Stohl’s “Beautiful Creatures;” Ones that lost traction: Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” young gods adventures and the trailing sequels of the beloved C.S. Lewis’ classic series “The Chronicles of Narnia”(the first was a success, the third faired better critically than the darker second); as well as Cassandra Claire’s “The Mortal Instruments” series, its first adaptation City of Bones a bomb, yet curiously a sequel remains in development.

What certainly gives Divergence the appearance of a leg up is simply pedigree. It is part of the Summit-Lionsgate family that outranks others when it comes to multiple winners in the YA realm. Summit launched Twilight before Lionsgate acquired it in 2012. Lionsgate has released two of its four Hunger Games franchise achieving over $800 million worldwide box office and turned Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence into a world class star; Summit’s Twilight saga franchise scored a show-stopping cumulative $3.3 billion worldwide box office, again turning relative unknowns Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson into international sensations. Summit will roll out Divergent internationally April 4 on hopes that its stars of equal rank are born.

While the heroines’ journeys in Divergent and The Hunger Games share similar elements, Summit’s President of Worldwide Marketing Nancy Kirkpatrick draws the distinction – “Divergent is really about Choice; choosing to break out of what limits you, choosing to believe in yourself and to find the power within.”

She explained how Summit’s marketing strategy has changed from the time of Twilight’s launch to Divergent’s debut. “The lesson learned is that every marketing campaign is different. My team has headed up the Twilight and Divergent marketing campaigns and Tim Palen and his team have headed up the Hunger Games marketing campaigns and, although we’re adding to our knowledge base all the time, there is no secret sauce… and we probably wouldn’t share it if there was,” Kirkpatrick notes. “It’s also not just about marketing… we have tremendous production and distribution teams who are equally responsible for the success of our existing franchises and working hard to build Divergent into the next one.”

She applauds the efforts of the campaign’s retail partners. “Mattel has created collector’s Barbies for the characters of Tris and Four complete with their Dauntless tattoos. Our friends at Hot Topic have window displays and a full line of merchandise in their stores. Sephora has a gorgeous line of Divergent inspired cosmetics. Naturally we have displays in Barnes & Noble, Books A Million and Hudson Books. Other partners include Target, Hastings, FYE and Transworld,” she says. “Wonderful partners.”

Frank Para, manager of Barnes & Noble’s popular store at The Grove in Los Angeles says the chain pumped another 100 volumes of “Divergent” into all of its major stores nationwide for the film’s national launch today. Next to those strategically placed volumes are additional copies of The Hunger Games series. Para says “they come in here after they see the movie at theatre next door and will often buy another just to have one with the movie cover on it to celebrate the experience. It gives the books a second launch and certainly Hunger Games is benefitting from it. Because of Hunger Games success people couldn’t wait to claim Divergent.”

People, Entertainment Weekly, Teen Vogue and US magazines also had dedicated special issues for the film and for several days this past week its stars appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

As for some early mixed reviews, Kirkpatrick says positive reviews are appreciated and certainly desired, “but it is the opinion of the franchise’s fan base that matters most. There is tremendous excitement for Divergent reflected in a myriad of ways – more than 17 million books sold worldwide to date, roughly the same number as when the first Twilight film launched; Great advance ticket sales (Fandango reported midweek 80% of all ticket sales were for Divergent); and huge response from fans on every social media platform we utilize.”

While Summit doesn’t make box office projections, Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst of the box office tracking firm Rentrak, considers anything “over $50 million opening weekend as a win for Divergent, possibly $60 million. Despite the popularity of the books, this is the first movie to be released and in that sense is a new and unknown quantity. Shailene Woodley is also not Jennifer Lawrence yet but she is a terrific young actress who has indie cred after going toe to toe with George Clooney in The Descendants. Hopefully she will be the star anchor of a major franchise. Female audiences wield tremendous clout at the box office now and thus Stewart, Lawrence & now Woodley are the hot stars while their young male counterparts sometimes struggle to find an audience or an identity that is as profound.”

Kirkpatrick clarifies that Woodley stands on her own. “Shailene Woodley is the next Shailene Woodley. She is unique and amazing and cannot be compared to anyone else really… an incredibly talented actress in her own right. Shai, Kristen and Jennifer are the best of the best and we are lucky enough to work with all of them.”

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.